Critical Minerals, Value Chains and Regional Cooperation

Latin America and the Caribbean holds a leading position in critical minerals such as copper and lithium; however, possessing the geological resource does not automatically translate into greater development. From the WEF’s global perspective, what conditions does the region need to advance value addition—processing, technology, services and manufacturing—while maintaining international competitiveness?

Latin America and the Caribbean faces a historic opportunity as global demand rapidly increases for strategic minerals used in energy-transition technologies, advanced manufacturing and high-technology applications. The region is a mining powerhouse, with economies such as Chile and Peru at the forefront of extraction technologies. However, the global imperative to diversify supply is not limited to extraction; it critically extends to refining and chemical processing.

The regional picture is currently heterogeneous: in lithium, approximately 80% of extracted production undergoes local processing and chemical transformation, while in copper the level of domestic processing is significantly below 30%. Decades ago, the region processed and smelted between 60% and 80% of its production, but the deployment of massive industrial capacity in Asia fundamentally changed the economics of the global market.

To reverse this asymmetry and make local processing economically viable, regional collaboration is the main structural enabler. No country can sustain the entire value chain on its own; broader industrial ecosystems are needed to guarantee secure and continuous supplies of competitive energy and mineral concentrates. Rather than engaging in unproductive competition among neighboring countries, the region should design innovative financial instruments and integrate industrial capabilities.

Mining projects require substantial capital investment, long development horizons and legal certainty in the face of rapidly expanding global demand. Based on the WEF’s global work, what are the key conditions that countries in the region should put in place to attract long-term investment and ensure sustainable and competitive projects?

International capital markets show a sustained trend in which foreign direct investment is concentrated predominantly in megaprojects exceeding one billion dollars, which account for more than 60% of major investment flows. This concentration reflects strong international appetite to finance large-scale assets, provided that operating environments structurally mitigate execution risks.

The financial viability of these investments does not depend exclusively on the quality of the mineral deposit or the corporate operator. It depends on a robust enabling environment that guarantees timely access to critical infrastructure: clean-energy systems, water-treatment and supply systems, and cross-border logistics platforms.

To mobilize capital at scale for processing and refining, scale and interregional collaboration are decisive. Global-scale mining projects require blended-finance structures and public-private partnerships that share precompetitive risks.

Predictability in the rules of the game and integrated planning of the industrial environment are the conditions that ultimately tilt the balance toward a favorable final investment decision in the region.

As mining production expands and pursues lower emissions, it requires greater electrical capacity and transmission networks. What are the most effective mechanisms to coordinate the mining project pipeline with energy planning and ensure that grid capacity is available on time without delaying the sector’s clean electrification?

Mining has a close interdependence with the energy sector: it is both a supplier of the minerals needed for decarbonization technologies and an electricity-intensive user that absorbs close to 9% of regional energy demand. In Andean value chains, where deposits are located in high-mountain and hard-to-access areas, the availability of firm power and transmission capacity directly determines whether a project is viable or financially unviable.

Faced with this challenge, permanent coordination between mining authorities and energy ministries is critical. Planning through a cluster and infrastructure-corridor approach makes it possible to anticipate the nodes where demand will concentrate and to deploy transmission and transport networks that cross administrative boundaries.

Regional experience shows that initiatives such as the Capricorn Bioceanic Corridor can optimize mineral-transport costs by approximately 35%, while simultaneously generating direct benefits for other industries and local communities. Sharing high-voltage lines, roads and logistics platforms distributes capital expenditure and accelerates the electrification of mining operations, ensuring that new assets are not locked into residual fossil-fuel use.